We all have a horror story about a long wait in an emergency room. Doctors in Delta and across B.C. are starting to speak publicly about their own experiences, and many are saying the situation has reached a tipping point.
There are two key reasons why a number of B.C.'s busiest emergency rooms are overcrowded: not enough ER doctors and not enough free beds in hospitals.
A shortage of doctors means patients have to wait longer for treatment. A shortage of beds means people admitted to the ER who must stay in the hospital (often the most serious cases) spend far longer than they should waiting for a bed to open up.
At Delta Hospital, the number of ER physicians was set in 2010 based on the ER seeing over 26,000 patients a year. Since then, the number of visits has increased over 16 per cent to almost 31,000 but staffing has not increased accordingly. Planned growth in Delta with TFN, Tsawwassen Springs and Marina Gardens will increase the patient load even further.
Currently Delta's ER only receives 75 per cent of the funding needed to handle the number of patients. There are many hours each day when only one doctor can see patients, which creates backlogs. Imagine cutting your household income by one-quarter: would you notice it?
We are in this situation largely because the government has walked away from an arrangement that produced good outcomes for several years.
Until recently the government negotiated directly with an organization that represents emergency room doctors. They used a formula that could be applied to different hospitals with different circumstances to reach consistent and equitable staffing decisions.
Doctors felt it was fair because it distributed money across the province according to workload.
It also allowed us to plan ahead so hospitals could meet the needs of growing populations.
Importantly, health authorities could not interfere with the staffing agreements reached. But the last agreement expired a year ago and now the government wants doctors to negotiate on their own with health authorities.
This is a divide and conquer approach, and patient care is the first casualty.
Health authorities such as Fraser Health tend to divert money to other areas. It also produces inequalities across the province: some regions will have better emergency care than others.
ER doctors have launched a campaign to address the problems in our province's emergency rooms. They are asking for increased physician staffing in ERs to handle increased patient visits and annual adjustments to ensure proper care in the future. Most of all, they want the government to return to the previous funding model.
Granted, hiring more doctors will cost more money. But the money is there; it's about priorities. Everyone will need to visit an emergency room at some point in their life. During those times almost everyone would agree that timely, attentive care is money well spent.
Hiring more staff can actually save the health care system money, because it helps avoid delays in treatment that can lead to complications.
It is a fact that Delta Hospital has the highest patient satisfaction rate in the province. Our hardworking doctors want to keep it that way. We should insist that the government return to negotiating directly with ER doctors using a model that is fair and equitable for all hospitals.
To learn more about our ERs and the issue of staffing, please visit the BCemergencycare.com website.
